The ACLU of California Center for Advocacy and Policy has stated 172 civilians were killed by law enforcement in California during the 2017 calendar year. The number of persons killed during these encounters with law enforcement is constantly cited to support the implementation of Assembly Bill 931.

The California Department of Justice just released their final Use of Force Report for 2017. They have revised numbers and the ACLU is correct, 172 civilians were killed last year. What they do not discuss are the circumstances which led to the civilians being killed. That information can typically be obtained from a database maintained by the Washington Post, but unfortunately, this database only provides details for about 160 of the 172 persons listed in the California DOJ Use of Force Report.

In these fatal encounters, citizens in California were found to be in possession of deadly weapons or engaged in criminal activity which jeopardized the lives of others as follows:

Teenage homicide suspect fled from police and disregarded orders before he was shot (Fresno).

Robbery suspect fled from police and weapons thrown from vehicle. Another fake weapon found in vehicle (Bakersfield).

Female teenager shot in stolen vehicle fleeing a stop and collided with other vehicles (Hayward).

Suspect assaulted a store clerk and repeated punched officer in head, nearly knocking him unconscious, before he was shot (Fremont).

Suspect shot during a foot pursuit by gang officer (Santa Ana).

Suspect took a teacher hostage, barricaded (Riverside).

Suspect shot and killed following a vehicle pursuit (Torrance).

But the big lie of omission in the ACLU report is the blanket statement that officers are madly gunning down people in the streets of California without regard to any other options. By failing to give the numbers on how many calls for service California police officers responded to, it allows the public to overlook the fact that the use of deadly force is less than one percent of police encounters. To have a massive shift in how police work is being done based on a 99 percent success rate is absurd. Even allowing for the ACLU’s claim that all deadly force could have been prevented, you are still looking at a less than one percent rate of force being used.

This is not to say that we can’t demand the best from the men and women who chose to do police work. We are not asking that the public be cheerleaders for the police. We should be held to a higher standard because maintaining the public trust is one of our most important values and duties. We have made remarkable progress because of the hard work police reformers put into changing policy and procedure. I would encourage everyone to do their own research on this topic and to be fair when giving an assessment on how we are doing. Please don’t take my word or the word of the ACLU. Police work is not easy.

I like to make the comparison to the NFL. The rules are constantly being changed in the NFL to make the game safer. But the reality is professional football, like police work, is inherently dangerous. You can make all the rule changes you like but you will never sanitize what the results will be out on the field of play in the NFL or in police work.